Shani nodded. For a moment, the irrational part of Kellen’s mind had expected her to hug him, or at least smile. Her icy exterior didn’t so much as think about melting.

“Good,” she said. “We must leave tonight. And quietly. My mother and grandmother will try to stop us if we are seen.”

Kellen glanced around the camp. Everyone was still asleep, of course, though he suddenly felt on edge every time someone muttered or adjusted to get more comfortable. It was as if an unseeing eye watched his every move. When he glanced back at Shani, he had the impression she would have rolled her eyes if she’d been familiar with the gesture.

“I will take our supplies — Shinopah and Ishtas are on watch right now. Even if they see me they will not raise an alarm. Head to the north until you are beyond sight of the fires in the grove of trees. I will find you and lead you to the path.”

It occurred to Kellen this could all be an elaborate ruse to kill him in the woods and dispose of his body without anyone knowing. He didn’t think Shani would do that… would she? Or maybe she’d lured a wild Mana Beast in hoping it would eat him before Nokom could rescue him and Vex.

“How are you going to find me in the dark?” Kellen asked. It was the only question he could think of to get a hint at her possible ulterior motives.

Shani gave a small snort. “If you are not making enough noise to wake the spirits, Vex will be.”

Kellen nodded and reached for Vex. Shani shook her head and put a hand on his shoulder once more to push him back down. “Not yet!” she pointed to the west, toward the mountains and the path Ubira had taken. “Ishtas is over that way, just out of sight. I will go speak to her. Wait before you come.”

“How long am I supposed to wait?” Kellen asked. “Ten minutes?”

A confused look crossed Shani’s face. “I don’t know min-oots.” The way she sounded the word out told Kellen it was another example of a failed translation by whatever power allowed him to speak in the native Oras languages. Which wasn’t good. He might wait too long, or not long enough, or —

“Do this,” Shani grabbed a stick from the ground and drew her knife. Making sure Kellen watched, she notched the stick, paused for about two seconds, and notched the stick again. “You see? Do not go faster. As soon as I am out of sight, start marking the stick. Leave when you have made fifty marks. Find another stick and do the same.”

“Got it,” Kellen said. He did the math in his head. A mark every two seconds, times one-hundred, which was about three minutes. He could just count it.

Shani looked at him like a teacher concerned her kindergarten student didn’t quite understand how simple addition worked. “Do you need me to explain again?”

She needed to explain a lot of things, like why she’d decided they should team up now, but as far as the timing went, it seemed hard to mess up. Vex let out a loud snort. Kellen cringed and looked around the camp. No one stirred.

“I’ve got it,” Kellen said.

With a nod, Shani slipped away into the dark. A sudden thought hit Kellen, and he reached out to grab Shani’s wrist. “Wait.”

Surrounded by her black band of war paint, Shani’s eyes flashed with anger. Kellen let go of her faster than dropping a hot pan. “Sorry. I’m not going without Obishi. His mother is missing too.”

Shani glanced to where the Earth Badger boy was sleeping a short distance away. “I am already going to be burdened with one boy who does not know how to fight!” she said in a harsh whisper. “He will only slow us down!”

She was probably right, but Kellen thought Obishi deserved the same chance and told Shani so. “Besides, he’s Earth Badger. He might be helpful in the mountains.”

Shani mulled this over for a moment and finally shrugged. “It is his life. Do not expect me to protect him. The two of you should bring supplies for him as well. And don’t get caught.”

Without waiting for an answer, Shani turned away again into the dark. Unable to hold back any longer, Kellen stopped her before he lost his nerve. There was something he had to know before anything else happened.

“Wait!”

“The daylight will be here if you do not stop talking!” Shani hissed. Her familiar scowl returned. “What is it?”

“Why are you doing this?” Kellen asked. He remembered what Nokom had said about Shani’s life being owed to him, but that didn’t seem like the complete picture.

Shani paused for so long that Kellen thought she was going to ignore him and leave. “I do not think highly of you, traveler,” she said. “It is not a secret. But I believe you will do anything to find your sister. If someone I loved was taken, I would want the same chance. And if I can free myself from my debt to you, all the better.”

This time, she left before Kellen could think of a response. A moment later, Vex stirred. He looked around, eyes blinking. “Was someone talking? Why are you still awake?”

After making Vex promise to be quiet, Kellen filled him in on Shani’s offer.

“Great!” the little fox said. “I love it — sneaking away in the middle of the night to fight overwhelming odds. The legend of Vex and Kellen is already growing!”

“Let’s worry about getting out of the camp without being caught before we worry about becoming legends,” Kellen said. “We need to wake up Obishi and not the others.”

He paused as another thought came to his mind. “Can you count?” he asked Vex.

“I can make it to at least thirty-one,” Vex said, voice full of pride. “Probably.”

Kellen ignored the random limit to Vex’s mathematical abilities. “Never mind,” he said. It would be safer to wake Obishi and leave, instead of worrying about Shani’s timing. “Now remember, be quiet.”

“Silent but deadly,” Vex whispered in a low, ominous tone. “Let’s do this.”

They rose and crossed the camp together, Kellen doing his best to look nonchalant while he carried Vex under one arm. He told himself to act like he was merely walking across the camp to take a pee, in case anyone was watching. By the time he reached Obishi’s side, Kellen’s heart hammered in his chest. He knelt down, eyes staring at the other two Earth Badger people sleeping nearby.

“Psst — wake up!”

Vex’s voice almost sent Kellen jumping over the Wakar mountains looming behind them. His hand jerked, smacking Obishi in the shoulder at the same moment. Obishi’s eye opened with a start. He bit back a cry of alarm when he saw Kellen kneeling over him.

Resisting the urge to glare at Vex, Kellen gave a hurried breakdown to Obishi. When he finished, the boy nodded.

“I will come.”

They rose and Kellen led them in the direction Shani instructed. As they crossed the camp, Kellen’s eyes darted from each sleeping form, expecting one of them to jump up at any moment and raise the alarm. He told himself there was no reason to worry — no one had even hinted they would be detained if they left the camp. But Kellen knew Tama, and while she might not care about where Obishi went, Kellen knew he was a different matter.

When they made it to the edge of the camp, Kellen allowed a small hope to flicker inside him that they would make it. As Shani promised, they didn’t run into Ishtas and made it to the aspen grove without seeing another person. By the time they made it inside the cover of the trees, Shani was already waiting for them in a small clearing. It surprised Kellen to find her there already, and he waited for her to berate them for being slow. Instead, she nodded her head once in apparent satisfaction and pointed to a pack on the ground. Obishi slung it over his should before Kellen could take it. Holding a finger to her lips to remind them to stay silent, Shani set off.

They followed in single file, Kellen then Obishi in the rear. Every few minutes, Vex grew bored and voiced a string of questions. Kellen shushed him each time. After about a quarter mile hike, they reached the base of the mountain path.

To Kellen, it appeared little more than a wildlife trail. Wide enough for two people to walk side by side, it wound up at an incline through slabs of rock until it disappeared around a short bend, barely visible in the faint moonlight. The three humans and Vex paused, looking at one another.

“This is where you found the string?” Kellen asked. Although it was just a mountain trail, the path gave Kellen an ominous feeling, like watching a thunderstorm approach or hearing the first notes of imposing music play in a movie just before something bad happened to the characters.

Shani nodded. “There are lots of tracks. I think Ubira went this way, along with whoever attacked the camp and the other captives.”

“We should get moving then,” Obishi said. “We have much time to make up.”

In silent agreement, they set off. The trail was steep and Kellen’s legs soon burned, even with the extra physical exercise over the past weeks. Sweat trickled down his face by the time they made the first bend. Shani set a hard pace as if determined to reach Ubira that night.

The trail wound up the side of an almost sheer cliff. Without the light of the moon, Kellen would have never attempted it in the dark. As it was, there was just enough light to see the edge of the trail and a hint of the steep valley growing farther and farther below. Vex shifted into his bat form and flapped a short distance ahead over the chasm. Every time Kellen looked at him hovering in empty air, his stomach turned. Head down, he hitched up his pack higher on his back, thumbs hooked under the straps, and focused on each step, one after the other.

They carried on this way for maybe an hour with the trail climbing up, up, up. When they came upon a jutting outcrop wide enough for them all to take a seat, Kellen swallowed his pride and called for a short break. He’d expected Shani or Obishi to make a comment, but the others tossed down their packs and reached for water. Wiping sweat from their faces despite the cold, everyone caught several breaths before taking a drink. Vex landed on Kellen’s pack with a self-satisfied air.

“The trail keeps going up the mountainside as far as I can see,” the little fox said. “Once we get up to the summit it opens into a meadow. There’s still snow in spots but I can’t see where they went.”

Now they’d stopped, Kellen shivered. He rubbed his arms beneath in poncho and thought about putting on his hoodie as well, though once they started hiking again he wouldn’t need the extra layer.

“How far to the top?” he asked Vex. After the climb they’d already made, he tried not to think that they might have days of the same ahead of them.

“We should make it by morning,” Vex said. “I think —”

The bat-shaped Mana Beast cut himself off. A warning sense flashed through Kellen’s mind, the same sensation as catching someone in the corner of his eye but in his mind. Before he could place what it was, Ira landed with a whoosh of air on the trail ahead of them. Tucking in his wings, he padded toward them.

“Getting an early start?” he said in his weary voice.

Shani stiffened and Kellen glanced back, half-expecting to see Gray Dawn making their way up the mountainside behind them. The path was empty.

“We aren’t going back,” Shani said.

“Nokom didn’t send me to bring you back,” Ira said, sighing. “And before you ask, Tama does not know you’re gone, not until morning, anyway. I’m going to stick with you for a few days to see you don’t get in too much trouble.”

That sounded like Ira was spying on them to Kellen, though he was grateful for the extra hand — or paw, in Ira’s case. Shani seemed to have the same suspicion and didn’t receive it as well. She didn’t challenge Ira openly, instead giving him a long, searching look. Ira said nothing. At last, Shani spoke.

“We should keep moving.”